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Camden Canals Narrowboat Association
Our aim is to offer disadvantaged community groups an experience of a canal trip on a traditional narrowboat. We run and maintain 'Tarporley' - a historic Northwich narrowboat, converted to carry 12 passengers. We mainly do day or evening trips but also longer ones as passengers & crew can sleep aboard. Volunteers help run the boat, crewing, supporting passengers, working locks, mooring,…
Description
  • There are public roles such as skipper or crew,  bookings management, and marketing
  • practical roles such as maintenance, painting,  electrics, woodworking, training, sign writing, decorating, cleaning, and laundry
  • administrative roles such as grant and sponsorship applications, bookkeeping, crew-rostering, publicity design and production, web design and special event planning
  • general roles such as attendance at canal festivals and events to assist with the smooth running and public safety etc.

The list goes on.

Duties

The most common and sought after role for students will be crewing the boat but as you can see above there are many other roles available.

Crewing includes working with the passengers and developing communication and customer service skills. Working the locks, steering the boat but also clearing and cleaning the boat after trips (Everybody mucks in), learning about the canals and the environment in London so you can be informative to the passengers.

Administration volunteers could include anything from maintaining a blog and publicity to bookkeeping.

Who will the volunteers be working with?
Passengers, other volunteers and officers

Time commitment

You can offer to crew on a trip-by-trip basis. Trips can be any day of the week throughout the year.

Trips are usually about 3 & 6 hours long, to which you need to add an hour for setting up and closing down the boat.

This organisation is one of our community partner organisations.

Like all volunteer recruiters we work with, they have signed up to our service standards, agreeing to abide by our policy on partnership working to keep you safe and supported whilst you volunteer.

You’ll never be out of pocket for volunteering through us – with in-London travel expenses to and from your volunteering guaranteed.

In addition, the team here at Students’ Union UCL Volunteering Service is here to support you throughout your volunteering journey – you can get in touch with us at any time.